I got this idea from a joke on the Slip Streams thread that there should be a 'Savage trait' and had a flight of fancy. So here is my rough draft of an idea.

Skill: Savage
Liked to: Spirit
Savage represents your instincts, brutality, hunger, and all around savageness in combat. Outside of combat you can be friendly as the next person. But when the fists start to fly look out!

New rules: In melee combat only you roll your strength +savage skill for damage instead of weapon damage. Bear handed you are considered armed and suffer no unarmed or improvised weapon penalties. Weapons may grant Armor piercing, reach, parry, or +1 (maybe higher) damage bonuses but the fighter holding the weapon is more important then the implement itself.

Setting: The setting is in the stone age/ tool age era of mankind. Strange and dangerous predators lurk and weapons are rare with metal weapons being nigh existent. The pilot and drive skills are worthless and lock picking or repair probably won't be used.Weapons are made from wood or bone and the best armor out there is a leather vest if your lucky. The setting focuses more on your innate talents and skills then equipment.

Optional Edge:Hard Body
Rank: Novice, Spirit 8, Savage 8, Guts 6
You have steeled yourself mentally and physically. You are able to withstand more punishment then normal. You are considered to have +2 armor to your toughness score. This is still armor and can be bypassed by AP attacks.

Actually, this one rule and one edge does a lot to define the setting for me. I have a very clear idea how brutal combat is, and I can see the PCs already, caught in an evolutionary link between the Neanderthal and Homo Sapien and somehow embroiled in a plot to save the world against alien sorcerers or something.

Anyway, yes. This is what we need, a setting where close combat is brutal and wild.

I think Shooting would only be used for slings.

Other Edge ideas:

Feeding Frenzy: When fighting something edible (damn near anything) you not only ignore Fatigue, you add it to your Fighting and Damage rolls! Requires Spirit and Vigor d6+

Massive: You're much larger than your brethren. +1 Size and +1 damage but you require 50% more food.

The first SW setting we played was a serious Sticks 'n Stones home-brew version (Stone Age with dinosaurs added to increase coolness). We found out that the 'Repair' skill was actually one of the most important skills! Every utensil that has to be made, there are no shops to buy stuff! So, repair got used for crafting most everything the heroes wanted to make themselves; protective clothing, stone-tipped spears and clubs, torches, ...
We also used Orc stats for Neanderthals for simplicity.

Different tribal totems and/or guardian spirits, as well as protective talismans and amulets, would also become part of the setting. (Maybe if you have access to Sundered Skies, you can take inspiration for guardian spirits by looking at the Wildlings: animal type = totemic ability.)_________________He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Primal Scream
Requirements: Seasoned, Spirit d8+, Intimidation d6+, Savage d6+
You can unleash a blood-curdling howl that comes up from the very pit of your soul. All creatures within a Medium Burst Template (centered on you) must make Guts checks. Your allies do so with a +2 bonus since you're on their side... they hope.

Jeremy Puckett_________________"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one." -Voltaire

Wendigo brings up a good point though about repair. Should I allow arcane backgrounds and magic or keep it no magic?

Also I'm pondering if I should 'borrow' the half orc berserking edges from wizards and warriors. You get to spend a benny to induce berserk instead of trying to fail a smarts roll. While not a horror game guts will still be an important part. For example rolling guts when your friend is ripped apart by an enemy savage/wild beast or when you encounter a bizarre power for the first time.

Wendigo brings up a good point though about repair. Should I allow arcane backgrounds and magic or keep it no magic?

Also I'm pondering if I should 'borrow' the half orc berserking edges from wizards and warriors. You get to spend a benny to induce berserk instead of trying to fail a smarts roll. While not a horror game guts will still be an important part. For example rolling guts when your friend is ripped apart by an enemy savage/wild beast or when you encounter a bizarre power for the first time.

Arcane Backgrounds might be restricted to superhuman feats. We're talking the AB (Superpowers) with B/L trait, Smite (which might as well be Boost Savage), Bolt for throwing rocks or spears, Stun for a savage attack that makes everyone queasy, Speed, Quickness, that sort of thing.

As for horror and Guts...man, in 12,000 BCE practically everything is a horrible monster. Bears, mammoths, evil beings from another dimension, it's all scary and unknown. Life is awful, food is scarce, and you have to handmake all the tools to survive._________________Proud Savagepedia contributor.

I can see the PCs already, caught in an evolutionary link between the Neanderthal and Homo Sapien and somehow embroiled in a plot to save the world against alien sorcerers or something.

It could be even simpler:

The PCs are Neanderthalers and have to defend their territory against invading Cro-Magnon men.

Wendigo1870 wrote:

We found out that the 'Repair' skill was actually one of the most important skills! Every utensil that has to be made, there are no shops to buy stuff! So, repair got used for crafting most everything the heroes wanted to make themselves; protective clothing, stone-tipped spears and clubs, torches, ...

Hmm...

If Repair was so overwhelmingly influential, it might actually be a good idea to split it into several separate skills (shouldn't be too much of a problem, as tons of other skills can be dropped from the list entirely).
I suggest three crafting skills: Stone Working, Wood Working (also works on bone) and Leather Working.

blackwingedheaven wrote:

Primal Scream
Requirements: Seasoned, Spirit d8+, Intimidation d6+, Savage d6+
You can unleash a blood-curdling howl that comes up from the very pit of your soul. All creatures within a Medium Burst Template (centered on you) must make Guts checks. Your allies do so with a +2 bonus since you're on their side... they hope.

And why not simply use War Cry instead?

zeth wrote:

Should I allow arcane backgrounds and magic or keep it no magic?

I think SK-style Shamanism should work quite well in this setting.

zeth wrote:

Also I'm pondering if I should 'borrow' the half orc berserking edges from wizards and warriors. You get to spend a benny to induce berserk instead of trying to fail a smarts roll.

Good Idea! And another idea (originally from Noshrok Grimskull) is to turn the Righteous Rage setting rule from SK into an Edge, requiring Seasoned, Wild Card, Spirit d8+._________________Please Click:

We found out that the 'Repair' skill was actually one of the most important skills! Every utensil that has to be made, there are no shops to buy stuff! So, repair got used for crafting most everything the heroes wanted to make themselves; protective clothing, stone-tipped spears and clubs, torches, ...

Hmm...

If Repair was so overwhelmingly influential, it might actually be a good idea to split it into several separate skills (shouldn't be too much of a problem, as tons of other skills can be dropped from the list entirely).
I suggest three crafting skills: Stone Working, Wood Working (also works on bone) and Leather Working.

Personally, in keeping with the existing skill structure, I would just make it one skill called Crafting, which would be used to make anything, and Repair to fix it.

So, then the next question, why take Repair then, if I can just make something? Well, you need the raw materials all over again to make a new one... I don't know if I would require a Survival roll or a new roll to find the raw material, but...

I can still see merit in the three separate crafting skills as well... Just depends on the feel one's going for. Personally, I like fewer skills.

Wasn't 'War Cry' a Half-Orc only Edge in Evernight? It functioned exactly like the 'Rebel Yell' Edge in DL:R._________________He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

War Cry can be found in Evernight, Wizards & Warriors, and Shaintar, Rebel Yell really is the same and can be found in DL:R.

In each case the Edge requires a character to belong to a race or nation with a suitably aggressive warrior culture. But in a setting like this, you can easily assume that all characters belong to such cultures._________________Please Click:

On repair, I'd keep it all one skill called repair. I don't want to make a lot of complicated rule changes since I don't know how to make those neat PDF documents for people to read.

I'd keep it that way as well.
No need to make up new skills when the old will do. "Repair" is actually more a misnomer sometimes: it can be used for much more than 'repairing' things. Crafting could also be included.
Maybe you can take a basic Crafting/Repair Skill, and have it give bonusses on your Knowledge: Stone(craft)/Wood(craft)/... roll, or vice versa. Or for a really odd job: roll both Skills' dice (+ Wild die): highest result wins.

Often making a setting your own is nothing more than rename/rethink some edges/Skills/... . Maybe a bit of tweaking, then you're set._________________He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

Well, first you make the document, as you want it to look, in the editor of your choice - Word, Photoshop, Notepad, Wordpad, OpenOffice Writer, gvim, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that you write up the document *as you want it to appear*.

Then, if you're using OpenOffice Writer (it's like Word, but free!) you click File then Export To PDF, click OKAY a couple of times, and you're done.

War Cry can be found in Evernight, Wizards & Warriors, and Shaintar, Rebel Yell really is the same and can be found in DL:R.

In each case the Edge requires a character to belong to a race or nation with a suitably aggressive warrior culture. But in a setting like this, you can easily assume that all characters belong to such cultures.

I managed to find War Cry looking through Evernight, but not Wizards and Warriors. I'm not familiar enough with Shaintar to say one way or another. I guess great minds think alike.

And I would agree that in a setting like this one, pretty much everybody qualifies as part of an "aggressive" culture.

Jeremy Puckett_________________"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one." -Voltaire